Universal Design at Penn State

At Penn State the lack of conveniently accessible buildings, internally and externally, has become an issue for handicap students at the university. A report by Facilitiesnet stated that “13 percent of the US population has some sort of disability. Roughly 20.4 million students, faculty, and staff on college campuses identify as having disabilities” (Why Universal Design is Critical on College Campuses 2018).


Our university has a high population of students, faculty, and staff who are included in these numbers. The current status of buildings on campus is only meeting the minimum requirements for addressing the issue of handicap accessibility. Most buildings on campus have one handicap accessible entryway, which is often times inconveniently located on the backside of these buildings or hidden out of sight.


The university is only checking off boxes when it comes to creating buildings that are conveniently accessible to all students. Abandoning this ‘meet the requirements’ mindset is an important step in addressing the issue of creating more universally designed buildings.


The issue remains that campus buildings are not upholding the university's high standard for diversity and inclusion. The university in turn needs to commit resources towards the improvement of buildings to ensure they are universally designed; accessible to all students regardless of their handicap, thus creating a more inclusive community.